Italy is positioning itself as Europe’s future regional gas transit hub, with the country’s energy minister signing a joint declaration in Tel Aviv on Monday to develop a new gas pipeline from Israel and Cyprus.
The 2,200-km East Med pipeline will connect Israeli and potentially Cypriot offshore gas fields to Greece and Italy. Additional volumes from Azerbaijan will also be available once the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is complete. Italy will be capable of delivering gas to Central and Eastern Europe by 2018 via a reverse-flow project in the Alps.